<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The price of rubies by lotesse</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27107176">The price of rubies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lotesse/pseuds/lotesse'>lotesse</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Lovecraft Country (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>1x10 missing scenes, Character Study, Choices, F/F, Interracial Relationship, Magic, POV Second Person, Possibly Unrequited Love, Sister-Sister Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:55:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>684</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27107176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lotesse/pseuds/lotesse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Leti on the one hand, Christina on the other. Where, you wonder, heading up your lover’s bedroom stairs, your heart sinking strangely, the moon waxing almost to full; where, in this magical tug-of-war, does Ruby Baptiste, Eloise’s dutiful daughter, fall?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ruby Baptiste &amp; Letitia "Leti" Lewis, Ruby Baptiste/Christina Braithwhite</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The price of rubies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>You look down at your little sister, begging you to use your magic, your body, your sex, to save her baby. Well. Leti’s always been simple; not dumb, but straightforward and one-track in a way you’ve not typically found helpful. Sisters are supportive or disconnected, mamas are worthless and gone, babies turn wanted and so important all of a sudden, when you’ve not heard her pining after one before now, or making plans to marry.</p><p>Paired up with Tic, Leti’s tripping now on baptism and impending motherhood, playing at angel of the house. You don’t want any part of that. You don’t wish her badly; but you want out of the morass of her carelessness, the tentacles of her driving simplicity. Ruby I need this, Ruby I want that, Ruby what’s the matter with mama, Ruby what’s the matter with you.</p><p>You think: is there something wrong? Should you care more, about your sister’s baby dream? Feel more pleasure in impending aunthood? Mmm. That just doesn’t sit right, not after all the water that's gone under the bridge between Leti and yourself. </p><p>Your attention's been otherwise occupied, of late, and you've enjoyed the freedom from your constricting familial role.</p><p>You’d felt majestic, lying in William’s arms, pinned down and writhing on his fancy foyer staircase. His lithe little body made you seem so lush, so verdant, bountiful, queenly. And then you’d started to realize … you hadn’t understood, at first. This love affair was something else. Even more wild, dangerous, tempting, than a spin on the stairs with a white man. Christina had wormed her way far further into your heart than William could have done.</p><p>Would it be like that, or even more so, kissing small, slight Christina in her own person? Could you just crush her, if you made love together in your own bodies? Would you want her to emerge, transformed, or just pulp her into blood in her bed, if you had your free and equal choice?</p><p>If you can do magic, does that mean you do have that choice, now, resting in the palms and fingers of your dainty Sunday-gloved hands? You’re becoming so much more than you’d realized. Leti does magic, speaks in tongues; so do you, though you’ve kept your yelling wordless, gasps and moans instead of incantations. </p><p>Leti uses magic to protect what she loves, simple and straightforward. How are you going to use yours? You sigh. As always, dealing with Leti puts you in troubled mind.</p><p>Christina’s face absorbs the colors of the light, not like your sister's, your mama's, her white skin sucking the scenery dry. Is she beautiful, to you? You look at her, and you should see reflections of a thing you know too well to want anywhere near your cunt, your mouth, your eyes: white woman’s cruelty, pale and lean. As soon as she’d given you that white skin, you’d found that selfsame cruelty creeping out, like a canker, uncontainable. But still you want to lean in to her, to kiss her, to confess to her and find your absolution in her passive words and active bodily response.</p><p>How deeply, you wonder with an internal twinge of uncertainty, how deeply has Christina been eaten? Who was left behind those cold eyes, always surrounded by their eyeliner spikes, as if to protect them from your penetration? It’s not safe, you know, this thing that you’re doing with this white woman. But it’s so rich and strong and heady that you can’t seem to stop. Maintain your composure at all costs, and you might still get through the crux of this gracefully. It’s all that you can do.</p><p>Leti on the one hand, Christina on the other. Little sister asks too much; lover gives up nothing, absorbs all without a sign of care, passion, contempt, love, anything. </p><p>Where, you wonder, heading up your lover’s bedroom stairs, your heart sinking strangely, the moon waxing almost to full; where, in all of this magical tug-of-war, does Ruby Baptiste, Eloise’s dutiful daughter, fall? You’d best pay attention. You fear in your secret heart that nobody else will.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>